Drallim have been chosen as a winner of Sussex Chamber Business Awards “THE PROBLEM SOLVER” 2022

We are delighted and proud to announce that we have been chosen as winners of Sussex Chamber Business Awards 2022 “THE PROBLEM SOLVER” from the Sussex Chamber of Commerce.

The award is for a business that has transformed the market that they operate in or their product or service in order to gain a strong position in their market. The Chamber Business Awards are one of the UK’s most prestigious business awards programs, recognising and rewarding excellence in British business.

Managing Director Dave Mooney said:

“On 9th February 2019 our factory in St Leonards on Sea set alight and hampered by the presence of gas cylinders, firefighters could not rescue it; by Sunday morning it was a complete loss! Our disaster recovery plan dusted down; on Monday morning the whole company met at the Hastings Centre. What a problem we had to solve; how to get back on our feet and into production and keep all our customers happy. Teams and leaders were set to work as our insurers investigated the fire and finally declared it accidental and covered! Subsequently, we met every Monday at Filsham Convent Library, working wherever we could, supported by local businesses offering help and office space. We then rapidly set about transforming a rental unit with our own hands, turning it into a fully functioning temporary facility re-equipped to the highest standards. We were back making things by early April!

“We drove our construction company hard and through cooperative planning they, delivered a quality ECO building design. As work progressed the COVID-19 lockdown hit but being direct suppliers to the MoD and critical infrastructure businesses (e.g. Arqiva, National Grid) we could not all “work from home”. We closed for just 4 days to adapt and carry-on production. Meanwhile building work slowed a little but never stopped and by October 2020 problem solved our new factory was open for manufacturing.

“Whilst the fire has been a devastating blow, our recovery has been a quite remarkable experience! It has often been frustrating, exhausting and almost overwhelming – but I think many of us have enjoyed the challenge, and the great spirit of camaraderie within the company, which has continued into our business activities. So, returning to the problem- solving theme; throughout the period we have continued to win new business from our customers. We were awarded a 10-year contract with the MoD taking over all the servicing of their cargo hooks for the UK helicopter fleet, this solved problems with inconsistent quality standards, stock control and poor safety testing. National Grid renewed a nationwide support contract monitoring oil filled power cables and we delivered a new mobile app tool for their engineers. Another major achievement in the period has been a series of orders from Hong Kong Electric with a phased delivery of special cable monitoring equipment over the period 2019 out until 2024; all developed specially for their challenging environmental conditions.

“This has been a 3-year journey from complete disaster to a turned around, focused business turning a profit in each of the years and keeping our staff employed even through Covid. Our customers are the other great heroes as they tolerated our delays and stuck with us until showing immense confidence in us all. As we write this, we are delivering another export success with a completely new version of our largest Dehydrators destined for the Irish Telecom network.”